


Stitches

by Verastophilis



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, F/M, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:08:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23971327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verastophilis/pseuds/Verastophilis
Summary: Hubernie Week - Day One: Stitches
Relationships: Bernadetta von Varley/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	Stitches

Hubert wrapped his lips around the spoon that was being offered to him, swallowing the stew that Bernadetta had given him a sample of to taste. He hummed, setting down his quill pen and turning in his chair towards her. “Mm...It’s quite good. It is missing something though…” Bernadetta smiled and wrapped her arms around her husband who leaned against her chest. 

“Beets…? No...Carrots. I think they would compliment your dish nicely.” He advised, taking the opportunity to kiss her shoulder. Bernadetta smiled. “We have some growing in the garden. I’ll be right back then. Could you watch the stove for a few?”

“Gladly. I’ve been working on these documents for Her Majesty for some time now...It’d be nice to stretch my legs.” Hubert said, standing from his chair, Bernadetta stopping him for just a moment to kiss his cheek. She watched the way he looked away with a blush, his hand instinctively rising to his chest to fondle the embroidered flower pinned to his vest. “See you soon.” 

“Hopefully sooner than later...If you take too long, I might have to devour you instead, little violet.” He teased. It was Bernie’s time to blush, the girl plucking the woven basket from near the door and heading outside. She was greeted with a dry summer heat, sending her dress fluttering in the breeze as she stepped down the cobblestone steps. Since the war had ended, Bernadetta and Hubert had married and taken over Varley territory. Hubert had guaranteed that she would not be forced into a life of politics, taking over the land and continuing to serve the Emperor. Bernadetta was free to make her own choices, and took trips out on the far edges of Fodlan to collect and catalogue the indigenous flora. Her encyclopedias grew popular among researchers in just those few years since their marriage. Whenever Bernadetta returned, Hubert was always there to welcome her with loving arms, the couple settling in a cottage in the plains. It was a little home for just themselves, complete with a large garden that Bernadetta spent most of her time in. Her vegetables flourished, the girl admiring just how plump her tomatoes had grown and how vividly green her cabbages had become. She paused as she reached the end of the row, discovering that a head of cabbage had been withered and dying, frowning as she bent down beside it.

“That can’t be right...what happened to you..? Poor thing. Bernie will take good care of you.” She promised, pulling on her long garden gloves and digging them down into the soil to uproot her plant. She was motivated, yet gentle as she massaged the long network of roots out from it’s spot. She heard a snort, feeling a puff of hot air against her back. She tensed. That was not a rogue gust of hot wind, she realized as she heard an animalistic breathing behind her. She felt predator-like eyes boring into her back as she slowly turned around. She pleaded that it was all in her imagination. That there would be nothing there after all. 

How horribly wrong she was. She stood wide-eyed, mere meters away from a giant wolf. The monster stood with his teeth bared, growling deeply as Bernadetta took a step back. She was like a deer in headlights, the wolf throwing its head back and letting out an eerie howl that sent Bernadetta into a panic. She started to run back towards the cottage, her basket full of veggies clenched in her arms. “H-H-HUBERT! HUBERT!” She screamed for him as the wolf chased her. The cottage door flew open, her husband rushing outside with his hands lit up a purple glow. He was prepared to destroy anything that would bring harm her way. He spotted the wolf chasing her and started to run out towards her. “Bernadetta!” He wanted to send a rain of dark spikes into the wolf, but saw that Bernadetta was much too close to the beast for him to do so without risking impaling her along with it. If he could just get close enough…

His worst nightmare came upon him as the vegetables tumbled out of the basket, Bernadetta tripping over them and colliding with the ground. The wolf quickly came upon her, letting out a vile growl as it lifted it’s paw into the air and swiped at her. Bernadetta screamed, and Hubert shouted her name once more, for once pleading with an external force that she would walk away from this unscathed. He held his hand out, a purple mass clouding overhead the wolf and Bernadetta’s body, Hubert clenching his hand into a fist as the cloud exploded with dozens of solid spikes that sliced through the wolf’s body. It let out a pathetic whine as it stilled, it’s body skewered. Hubert paid it no mind, hurrying to his wife’s side and picking up her head. “Bernad...Bernadetta? Bernadetta!” He called for her, shaking her slightly as he saw her eyes roll unconsciously and close. She could hear him as he faded away as she did moments later.

She awoke alone, her body floating weightlessly in a dark, empty abyss. Bernadetta made note of how she felt neither hot or cold, feeling no physical sensation at all...She lifted up her arm to observe, noticing that her skin did not feel quite right. In fact, it didn’t feel like skin at all. She squinted, noticing the strange creases in her hands...how her arm lacked pores and hair follicles. She started a little longer, realizing that her feelings about her skin were true. She no longer possessed skin and instead was made entirely of fabric. It was beautiful, unblemished fabric she thought to herself. 

“I’m dead, aren’t I…?” She heard herself say, without so much as moving her lips at all. “Of course...How could I not have seen this happening...A dull, and horrible reclusive life...and then the moment I find happiness, I die....The world is a cruel place, eh Bernie…?” She spoke to herself, Bernadetta blinking into the void. She felt tense and her heart ached. She was dead. After all of that...She was dead. She cried, her fresh tears soaking into her cloth cheeks, creating a mass of dark wetness spreading across her face. Jolting, she saw a vision faint in the distance. It was an early memory in her formative years, Bernadetta having brought home a stray cat that she spotted outside. Her father was disgusted, she cowering at his angry face and tone as he ordered a knight to separate them. 

“B-but father-!”

“No ‘buts’, Bernadetta! How dare you bring this mangy thing into this household?! Who knows what diseases it could be riddled with?! Do you want to be the one responsible for our deaths?! Is that what you desire?!”

“No!” Bernadetta cried as the knight ripped her new friend from her arms. She was locked inside of a closet for the rest of that day.

Bernadetta blinked back her tears, feeling the ache in her chest grow powerful. She glanced down to her bare body, the fabric that covered her chest stretching and violently ripping open. Colorful ivory sand began to pour out of Bernadetta’s body, dissipating into the empty void around her.

And she cried. Another vision came to her. 

“How many times have I told you, Bernadetta?!” Bernadetta couldn’t remember what she was being scolded about. Oftentimes her father would be upset at things that she was not involved with, yet he would take it out on her regardless. This was one of those times, she was certain. 

“A-Aaah! No! No!” Bernadetta screamed, a small and fragile pre-teen tied to a wooden chair. “You will learn to behave...even if you have to spend a few nights with the rats to figure it out.” Her father had dragged her by her hair over to a hatch door that led to the lower levels of the estate. Bernadetta was met with a dark stairway, her father throwing her down the staircase. The chair she was tied to clattered against the cobblestone loudly as she was left there for hours and hours on end…

Bernadetta felt her arms tear open, the bruised fabric spilling out beautiful streams of sand. Bernadetta cried. She felt as if her soul was dying and disappearing. “I don’t want to die- please…” She pleaded into the void, her limbs falling apart into empty burlap ribbons.

Another vision came to her. 

She was going to be married, her parents shared the wondrous news. They had reached out to another noble family of the empire, one who had a son that was to be her future husband. Her mother patted the hand of the young teenager to congratulate her, though Bernadetta was unsure what all of this entailed. She was still quite young, after all. The gravity of her being forced into a marriage had only just started to settle in. “What’s he like?” Bernadetta asked her mother, her mother leaning down to kiss her head. “He’s a nobleman.” She answered simply. Why did that matter to her? 

Her father burst into the room, storming inside and ripping Bernadetta from her mother. “You...You...WHAT did YOU do..?”

“I-I-I...u-um...I-I’m so sorry!” Bernadetta cowered, her father reaching down and entwining his hands in her hair. 

He always went for her hair, Bernadetta thought. She recalled her years in Garreg Mach, her hair a curly and frizzy mop on account that she had never brushed it. She couldn’t help but to be reminded of the pain of her father’s fingers as the brushes would snag the tangles. He had affected her so much…

She began to focus back on the vision, watching him kick her like he would a puppy into her room. Her father had hit her many times, but never to the point of blood. He threw her into the desk, shattering a vase and coating her legs with shards of glass. 

“What did I do?!” Bernadetta screamed. Her father yanked her face up to meet his eyes. Her mother had applied make-up to her that morning to celebrate, the mascara trailing down her cheeks in black rivers. 

“You had the opportunity of a lifetime...WE had the opportunity of a lifetime...that boy doesn’t want to marry you! You’re RUINING the Varley bloodline! I ought to be rid of you now!” He pulled a dagger from his pants and held it up to her throat, watching her scream and writhe away from it. Her mother ran into the room, pleading with father to leave her be and give her another chance. She was dropped into the glass, feeling lifeless and shattered all the same.

The vision faded away and Bernadetta’s body was trickling out the last bits of sand...her body was reduced to moldy, ugly ribbons…

“It’s over...I don’t want to see anymore…” She cried, her head lulling to the side. She was to die like this...alone, empty, unfulfilled, unloved...

She noticed a presence near her face, her eyes following the line of the figure that sat beside her. The blurred vision from her tears made it difficult to focus on the face in front of her, but as he leaned closer, she remembered.

“H-Hubert…” She sniffled. “What are you doing here?”

He silently smiled, shook his head, and began to thread a needle. She stared at him with bewildered eyes before she saw another vision appear. The war was over and she was sent an anonymous letter by someone with the most beautiful handwriting to meet her at the Goddess Tower. She expected a knight or perhaps one of the Imperial Guards...but certainly not this. Hubert knelt down and took her hand in his. “I would like to marry you. I know this may come as a surprise, but…” He offered an embroidered flower to her, the sloppy stitching and fraying ends clearly made by a novice. It was made by him.

“I love you, Bernadetta...and I feel I’ve...been in love with you for quite some time. I couldn’t afford to tell you earlier...I feared the idea of losing you in the war too greatly…”

Bernadetta dropped to her knees and pulled him into an embrace. “That’s okay...I’m happy you waited…”

Bernadetta felt her fabric wound tight as Hubert began to sew up her arm, patching up her limbs with ease as Bernadetta stared into her memories. He watched her expression with sincere, loving eyes as he effortlessly drew the needle and thread through her. 

She saw another, the day of their wedding. It was small, but elegant and beautiful nonetheless. Bernadetta was happy to see the amount of people supporting them, and for once supporting Hubert. He was not used to it either, exchanging awkward glances with her and Lady Edelgard as she unified them in matrimony.

Then another, the first time they made love on their honeymoon. She was completely inexperienced, though he didn’t seem like much of an expert himself. She realized for the first time then just how much bigger and broader than her he actually was...and that his skin was pale without even a single hair to be seen...He was beautiful and intimidating, like a porcelain statue. 

And finally another as she saw them move into their countryside cottage, the two snuggling together by the fireplace. “What are you thinking about?” Hubert asked her as she stared aimlessly into the flames. “Hm?” She snapped out of it, looking up at him. “What is on your mind?” He asked again. “Oh...I’m just thinking...I’m just...I’m really happy to be here, with you, Hubert. I never thought I’d get to this point in my life.” He pulled her taut and kissed the top of her head. “I feel the same about myself...We’re quite the lucky couple, are we not?”

Bernadetta gave a content sigh as the abyss returned to her, Hubert finishing up the last of her stitches, leaving a beautiful trail of flowers and heart embroidered into her skin, her inners neatly contained. She sat up and wrapped her arms around him. 

“I love you.” She whispered. “I think I’m ready to go now…”

Silently Hubert stood up and took her hand in his, walking together towards a light in the distance. It grew brighter as they walked, Bernadetta closing her eyes as she was soon engulfed in warmth and light.

“Bernadetta! Bernadett- A-ah!” She heard Hubert calling her name in a panicked tone as he shook her awake, Bernadetta squinting and sitting up. She looked around her. They were back at their cottage, vegetables and patches of magical, purple flames peppered around the garden...and only a few feet from them both, the corpse of the giant wolf covered in deep punctures.

She looked to Hubert, who seemed stressed and worn. Still, he was relieved, hanging onto her in a tight embrace.

“Are you alright? Did it harm you?”

“N-no, I don’t...I don’t think so…” She sighed, still trying to make sense of her strange dream. She turned to Hubert and kissed him by surprise, the man reciprocating without hesitation. 

“Did me saving you from death just now earn me a kiss as a reward? I should do it more often, then.” He chuckled, Bernadetta gasping. “You get kisses for free! Now let’s go have our lunch.” She exclaimed as she stood. The two walked back to the cottage hand-in-hand, Bernadetta feeling finally fulfilled.


End file.
